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Jim Lampley and Roy jones, Jr. had to remind Merchant twice that it was Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Who in American doesn't know that? who in professional sports doesn't know that?
Merchant's philosophical rants were at times aloof, misplaced and self-absorbed. He also seemed to take great pleasure in trying to make a fool of the fighters he interviewed after the bouts he covered. He is out of touch and he has long exuded arrogance in the interviews.
I think the telecast will be a little more enjoyable moving forward.

For those that dnt like Larry when is the last time you have seen a post fight interview that was good, where fighters got called out for there bs, even told they were boring, or asked the real questions?

Only Larry can do that.

who has got as much of a chance as Larry has?
I'm excited to see some new young hungry commentators in boxing.

Aside from the old school style commentary Merchant didn't really bring anything to the table but regurgitated questions. I'm still having trouble figuring out why people like that. Hopefully Kellerman's self serving ego doesn't take over.

He's a story I read about him which explains him. Teddy is from the old school, there's a Eason he's bit that scar and there's so many fighters and managers who hate to wrk w him, but he's still the best play by play guy in boxing.

Briggs, Atlas, and a few other aspiring fighters and a manager entered a grimy restaurant in Biloxi. Briggs had his dreadlocks painted orange and fashioned on top of his head. When they entered, they were greeted with harsh laughter.

"What the **** is that on your head, boy? What kinda monkey are you?" Even then it took me a second to realize that it was directed at my guys, that it was a racial thing. The three of them, Shannon, Troy, and Mark, were by the door of the restaurant, up this set of steps. THere were these other guys standing there, and words were being exchanged. I started up the steps. I could see Shannon trying to go past these guys into the restaurant. One of the guys, the biggest one, a muscular bruiser with long hair and a beard, in an oil stained gimme cap, stepped in his way. "Where do you think you're going," He said. Then he shoved Shannon, who fell back into me. "You better go back where you came from, boy" the guy said. the rest of them laughed. I stepped past Shannon and got right in the face of the guy who had pushed him.

"Who the **** you talkin to?" I said."Why, you gonna do something? They aint gonna do nuthin, you gonna do somethin?" "Yeah, I sure am!" I said, and cracked him one on the jaw. One of his friends came at me and I turned and cracked him. Then the first guy grabbed hold of me, and he was big. He pulled me toward him, and we started to fall backward toward the stairs. As we started to fall, I heard Shannon scream, "Teddy!," like he thought I was about to be hurt, but as I was falling I twisted the big guy around and fell on top of him. We crashed down the stairs and his big body cushioned my fall. All my weight was on him and his head slammed against teh ground and cracked wide open. I was able to get right up, but he was out, unconscious and bleeding.

Then these other guys came out of the restaurant.It turned into a brawl. Mark and Troy stayed off to the side, but Shannon joined in, and we busted up a bunch of them. We worked our way back to the parking lot. I said to Mark, "Get Shannon in the car and get him outta here" He was my fighter and I was there to protect him. While I was holding these guys at bay, I told mark and shannon to take off. Shannon didnt want to, but mark pushed him into the car. They drove away.

Troy and I made our way back to the road with a couple of these guys still following us. they were acting braver now that there was just me and troy- plus it was clear troy wasn't a fighter. We were walking toward this gas station down the road,and they were about fifty feet behind us. Troy was getting nervous.

"Ted, they're still following us."
"Slow down, let em catch up" I said.
"They're coming after us," troy said.
"Im just leading them to where i want them, they got anything in their hands?" Troy looked back, I didn't want to look back. "No," he said

"good"
I was very calm, which reassured him. we'd gotten them to where it was a little dark, just past the gas station, away from their friends. They were right behind us now, i could hear them saying things like mother****er this, ****** that, etc. Suddendly, I turned around, "Yeah, mother****er? I'm a mother****er?" I walked right toward them, They weren't expecting it, they were taken off guard. I hit one of the guys so hard I thought it might have killed him.I dropped him with one shot. The other guy, when I started toward him, took off. Troy said, "Oh ****!"

We started to go back to our hotel when we saw all the cop cars there.We started running through people's yards, we managed to get to our room unseen, we saw them go into the manager's office and out comes the manager with them, starting towards our rooms.Cops had their guns out.Just before the footsteps reached the door, I heard the voice of Les Bonano, the police chief of new orleans, a fight promoter, he was talking to the head police officer. It was like the cavalry had arrived.

Apparently, the guys who we beat up told the police that we had guns,and the cops wouldve gotten us for sure if les hadnt showed up and explained the situation, that we were boxers, there for a prizefight.They hadn't believed that we beat all those guys up with just our fists, but when he explained everything and how we didnt have guns, they left.

Overnight, the story turned into legend. When we went to the weight in the next day, the building was packed. Everyone knew about what had happened, all these old southern guys who were the commisioners, they'd all heard. The details of the incident got exaggerated. We'd beaten up 8-10 guys, Tommy Morrison, who was fighting on the same card, came over to us and said, "Ten guys had you cornered? Man!" shannon briggs told everyone, all his friends, and the story made it all the way to Michael Moorer in detroit. By then it was ,"Hey, teddy kicked the **** out of like, 20 rednecks. He knocked out ten of them. Two of them died."